Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the German Shepherd Dog Forums forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Automatically embed media (requires automatic parsing of links in text to be on).

Automatically retrieve titles from external links

Topic Review (Newest First)

06-16-2014 07:17 PM

Chip18

Tend to agree with the list myself, on my quest for a little dog..Chi and there mixes are a big "NO" for me! I have know a few very nice ons but as a group, I equate them to the (little) dog equivalent of a Dogo Argentina, at a dog park!

06-15-2014 10:27 AM

llombardo

Based on what I have seen or heard I agree with the list. The only one I'm not sure of is a pointer and I think labs should be on there . My GSD's weren't destructive and neither was the Dalmatian or chihuahua I had.

06-15-2014 10:16 AM

lauren43

This is only true because Chi's are very hard to potty train. I've had to throw out 2 rugs because of my boy. But he has never chewed on anything and I've had him for a year!

I know many large breed dogs that have destroyed couches, haha, my little chi would be hard pressed to eat a couch.

06-15-2014 10:06 AM

LaRen616

My Dalmatian isn't destructive, he did scratch the outside door a little bit trying to get inside but that was it.

My GSD ate some of my bedroom carpet and ate some of my wall when I first attempted to leave him out of the crate when no one was home but he has not destroyed anything else.

06-14-2014 01:08 PM

Freestep

Unless the breeds are drastically different in the UK as opposed to the US, this study is way off base. Labs are one of the least destructive??

The #1 most destructive dog I've ever owned or seen was a wolf hybrid. He ate the siding off houses.

06-14-2014 12:12 PM

Magwart

When a bored GSD decides to get into something and destroy it, they don't mess around. They use their brains and dismantle parts of the house.

Through rescue, we get a lot of tales of woe when people want to get rid of dogs they've parked outside in a backyard as "lawn ornaments."

One made a "job" of removing pieces of the wood siding from a home. The dog was likely curious about sounds of bugs or mice inside it.

Another figured out how to pull boards off a wooden privacy fence, by shredding them, bit by bit to destroy a section of fence and create an opening to roam. Why dig like a normal dog when you can use your brain and dismantle the dad-gum fence?

Another went up a set of outdoor steps leading to a garage attic, from which she could reach a low-hanging piece of roof and removed part of a row of wood shingles and gnawed at the corner of roof decking. The corner was an especially satisfying chew-object for this adolescent. That same dog also taught herself to pull window screens from gound-floor double-hung windows and hoist herself through open windows (a good 5' up). She was adamant that she wanted to be inside, with her people.

What's different about this sort of GSD mischief is its not random acts of destruction like some other breeds do--it's calculated and methodical. To them, they're working a puzzle of some sort to get at some goal. That kind of mischief sometimes ends up being wildly expensive to repair, which is why they tend to lose homes for it (even though the root cause is nothing more than a bored dog).

06-14-2014 11:52 AM

Yoshi

Well that can't be right. Clearly these people never met my mother's Staffy who destroyed 3 fly wired doors, and 2 mesh wired doors, and also destroyed countless toys that were meant to be tough and also dug numerous holes in the backyard. However, the dog was fairly easy to toilet train which was good.

As opposed to my mother's Chihuahua who was a nightmare to toilet train. She must be ten months old and still hasn't got the hang of it. Needless to say, she hasn't really destroyed anything other then her toys which were soft anyway.

Now my White Swiss was a dream to toilet train and he didn't do large amounts of damage. He would wreck his toys, dug a few holes but that was easily solved. There were a few times when he tried to eat out of the garbage though, that was solved too. Gosh, miss him.

06-14-2014 11:03 AM

middleofnowhere

Here I thought you would be complaining that the GSD didn't rank higher...
Link didn't work for me. I'll try it again later. Thanks for posting this.

06-14-2014 10:41 AM

GSDAlphaMom

GSD least destrutive of the top 10 destructive breeds

This story was on the local news this morning, though they were misleading in that they said the german sheperd was the least destructive breed. I looked up the article and it goes a little further and has two separate lists, top 10 destructive and 10 ten least destructive: